Spotlight On... Silvi

In a relatively short space of time, Silvi has racked up quite the CV. Having only started making her distinct alt-pop music during the pandemic, she’s already headlined King Tut’s, showcased at Wide Days and starred in a BBC documentary about the West Lothian music scene, among other accolades. It’s quite impressive, I’m sure you’ll agree. When it comes to her musical style, Silvi is chameleonic, as comfortable singing a heartfelt ballad as she is rapping bars over indie soundscapes, and everything else in-between.

On her latest single Visions, set for release on Friday 2 February, the West Lothian artist delivers her boldest song to date, all infectious guitars and snarling vocals with a pop sheen, and plenty of room to breathe. For this week’s spotlight on we catch up with the musician behind the moniker, Jodi Findlay, to find out more.

The first thing I want to ask about is your songwriting process, because across your music the mood of the instrumentation always seems to perfectly match your lyrics/vocal delivery. Do you start with the lyrics first and then write the music, or is it the other way around? Or does it vary?
That’s so kind of you to say! Mood is something I use as a tool to set up the song as a writer. I only really write when I’m in the headspace of needing to get something off my chest – so I always know the atmosphere I want to achieve from the outset. Typically I start with an idea of the mood I want to capture, then I’ll find chords that match the feeling, then I’ll sing melodies over the chords. The lyrics tend to come straight after, and because I’ve already set the tone melodically it helps inspire me to say what I need to say. For the studio version of Visions, I worked with my amazing producer Scott Bathgate in the studio for about ten hours to complete the instrumentals. 

Visions feels like a song of two halves, with rockier elements perfectly balanced with softer moments, although your vocal stands powerful throughout. What other artists would you say inspired the juxtaposing sounds you’ve created on this single?
Thank you! I always try to have dynamics in my songs to create a build and a sort of push and pull for the listener, whilst also taking into account moments to give myself a breather when I sing them live! I’d say the biggest sonic influence for this song was my top streamed Spotify artist of 2023 – Jacob Banks. To me he combines pop, rock and soul really well and that’s what I’d love to work towards as an artist.

I wrote this song on an acoustic guitar and initially I sang the lead guitar riffs over the chords as I could hear them in my head and hoped for a massive sounding chorus; it became apparent that they worked better as heavy guitars rather than a vocal melody. That’s something that’s quite common for me; I don’t play lead guitar but I often write the parts as a vocal melody first and sing them to Scott who can effortlessly play them on guitar by ear.

Jacob Banks’ songs frequently feature a prominent vocal or guitar hook so that influenced this further, and I’m also inspired by alternative blues pop artist Two Feet who’s songs often build to a climactic guitar drop. For me, it’s exciting to always have a moment in a song that you’re excited for and with Visions this is the almost metal-sounding riff section towards the end that was also originally a vocal melody that I sang to Scott which worked better on guitar.

Lyrically, you say that Visions is about the dangers of manifestation, and being careful what you wish for. Can you tell us more about these ideas, and why you wanted to explore this theme in your music?
I wanted to explore the concept of dreams/manifestation for a while as it’s something I think about a lot and haven’t written about before. I don’t want to come across as delusional in any way, and I make fun of myself for it because it can sound a bit whimsical, but I do think there’s something to be said about visualising positive outcomes and how they contribute to a better experience in everyday life.

Recently I realised that a lot of what I’ve lived and achieved in the past couple years have been things I’ve wanted and thought were unattainable; whether that be places I wanted to go, music goals I wanted to reach or people I wanted to have in my life. I started to believe in manifestation in the sense that you can think things into your life to a certain extent because you’re constantly naturally following the path of eventually getting there. Then I realised this could work the other way around too – so the things I worry about could also start appearing in front of me and so it made me more conscious of what I was replaying in my head over and over.

As someone who’s struggled with anxiety since childhood, I wanted to get out of the unhealthy habit of picturing scenarios that I feared. It’s true what they say; “worrying about it is suffering twice” so why not put myself to better use and visualise good things happening to me instead. Even if they don’t come true, it’s still affording myself more comfort than worrying about them! 

I believe you’re planning to release your debut EP later this year – what can we expect from that and what does the rest of the year look like for you?
I hope to, funds permitting! I’m interested in finally putting out a body of work instead of just singles, so for the rest of the year I really want to focus on writing and recording. I have deliberately not booked too many gigs for the first half of the year because I think an EP would be the next sensible step for me as an artist. I have one really exciting gig booked for overseas in March, it’ll be my first time playing outside of the UK and I’m still in disbelief that it’s happening – but again – it was once just a vision and now it it’s came true…without sounding too hippy about it! I’ll be announcing it on my social media very soon!

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Visions is out on 2 Feb
instagram.com/silvisounds